A young man from a wealthy family wrote to "Dear Abby" some years ago. He told her how he was about to graduate from high school. He explained that it was the custom in his affluent neighborhood for the parents to give their graduating son or daughter an automobile. So in anticipation of his graduation, he and his father spent a good deal of time looking at cars, and the week before graduation, they found the perfect car.But then on the eve of his graduation, his father handed him, not the keys to that special vehicle, but a gift wrapped Bible. He explained he was so angry and disappointed with his father that he threw the Bible down and stormed out of the house. Sadly, he said, after that incident he and his father never saw each other again.Years passed and finally it was the news of his father's death that brought this fellow home again. As he sat one night going through his father's possessions that he was to now inherit, he come across the Bible his father had given him. He brushed away the dust and opened it only to find a cashier's check, dated the very day of his graduation - in the exact amount of the car they had chosen together.
As I thought about that story, I couldn’t help but wonder how many people in this world have done the same thing to their Heavenly Father. And tragically I believe that happens far too often with the gift of life everlasting that He purchased for us at the cost of His own Son's life. There is no greater gift than the gift of the forgiveness of sins, a new and renewed relationship with Him, and the guarantee of eternal life – none. Yet how many people are looking for something else from their Heavenly Father and what He has so lovingly provided, they thoughtlessly cast aside – until it’s too late.I have no doubt that our church will be filled again to its capacity on Easter Sunday. I hope you'll be among that gathering. I pray, though, that our celebration of Easter be much more than a one day tradition – that it rather be an on-going celebration, one wherein the true joy of our hearts regularly make its way to our lips with words:
He lives all glory to His name!
He lives, my Savior, still the same;
What joy this blest assurance gives:
I know that my Redeemer lives!

In our Living Lord’s name,
Pastor Steele